Interview: The medicine man

What's your picture of a scientific hero? Craig Venter as played by George Clooney? Richard Dawkins by Harrison Ford? Self-deprecating Paul Farmer is not your everyday leading man, yet fresh out of college he set up a charity to provide free medical care to people in central Haiti, and has challenged and improved the basic healthcare systems of other desperately poor places ever since. This week he picked up a Hero Award from one of US's most prestigious foundations. Curtis Abraham caught up with him recently

Why have you dedicated your life to fighting for good healthcare for the world's poor?

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what all the reasons are. I got interested as an undergraduate in North Carolina, when I met a Belgian nun who was helping migrant workers. Meeting them was a kind of epiphany. I would ask: if the working conditions here are so ...

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